Pierre Nicole--Jansenist theologian, philosopher, polemicist, and moralist--was born on 13 October 1625, in Chartres. From a family of the noblesse de robe (administrative class of the nobility), Nicole demonstrated from a young age a passion for Latin under the tutelage of his lettered father. Nicole attended the College d'Harcourt in Paris and during this time read broadly and extensively; his reading included works of heretics, both ancient and modern, and polemicists from Erasmus to Cardinal Jacques Davy Du Perron. He is also purported to have had some exposure at this point to worldly literature as well, such as the précieux novels (those pursuing excessively refined elegance in language and manners) of Madeleine de Scudéry. At the age of seventeen Nicole began studies for the priesthood, but he did not go beyond the stage of tonsured cleric and bachelor in theology. His studies in philosophy and theology...